Voters must ignore the Referendum – UPND
A citizen casting her vote at Kamwala South School
The opposition UPND has urged Zambians to ignore the referendum as they cast their votes in a general election.
UPND’s Cholwe Beyani said the opposition party and Civil Society Coalition are not part of the referendum.
Below is the statement by Dr Beyani:
The UPND and the civil society coalition to start with cannot be party to the referendum because we opposed the defective constitution in parliament lock, stock and barrel. This is because the Constitution is a defective body of law that mutilated the original acceptable draft.
It gives the president more powers than KK had and can even override provisions of the Bill of rights due to the unchecked executive powers. PF passed this bill in parliament with the bought MMD members that gave them two thirds majority. So this in effect is a PF constitution and Bill. The Referendum also gives a blanket power to PF parliament to amend sections of the Bill of Rights. Zambian citizens want a true and proper constitution that will stand the test of time, not PF half measures. Since UPND rejects the referendum and refuses to participate in it, this useless body of PF law shall fail.
Besiodes most people in the compounds and villages and even among many educated do not really know what they will be palcing yes or no for. there is need for better education and separation of the referendum from the General election.
The UPND approach In Government
UPND Will restore the original draft and repeal this defective PF imposed constitution and thus have the Bill of attendant thereto. But certain constitutional provisions will stand.
1. Cabinet from outside parliament.
2. Proportional representation so that special constituencies that do not fair well in an open election are taken care of such as youth, women, disabled, etc. These need to be brought in the governance system.
3. The Bull of Rights (Social, Economic and Cultural Rights) also referred to as third generation rights will not be subject to any amendment except through a referendum.
4. Institutional Independence of the judiciary will be protected. Their appointment will be through some judicial commission that will recommend to the president, not the president appointing judges as if they were DCs.
5. Parliamentary Independence will be strengthened by separating cabinet from parliament. Parliamentary Committees will be strengthened so that they have prosecutorial teeth especially over abuse or mis-allocaton of resources.
These are among UPND government measures to be undertaken within 10 months of taking office. So ignore the PF rubbish bill and HH will Fix it.